Amith Prabhu: Our biggest PR campaign would be a display of discipline

27 Apr,2015

By Amith Prabhu

We are a country of countries. We are uniquely placed in comparison to other large Asian or American countries. The singular reason for our unique placement is that we have at least 15 states out of 28 that have their own language and several more among the tribes that inhabit various regions especially the north east. Hence, every piece of brand or political communications needs to be translated into multiple languages in order to create national awareness.

This along with our extremely unfavourable climatic conditions makes India a difficult place to operate in when compared to economies like China, Japan, Germany or the United States which are world leaders. The Prime Minister launched several campaigns as soon as he took charge but there has been no campaign to discipline Indians. A much-needed exercise to make the nation the best place to Make in. (my obvious reference to the much hyped Make in India campaign).

Our diversity is great but the one thing we are united by as a nation, is our indiscipline. Being late to meetings, not scheduling appointments using online resources, a dislike for queues, an utter lack of respect to pedestrians when we are driving and pedestrians having no disregard for traffic signals are just some of the examples. This is a touchy topic but in our weakness lies an opportunity.

If Make in India and Clean India have to become successes they have to be backed by a great deal of civic sense, respect for fellow citizens and a new found love for discipline. Unless this campaign is driven from the top it will not find favour. A campaign of this kind may never see the light of day at a national level but can we start small as key players in the organisations we work at. Can PR professionals, both in-house and in consultancies be known as the one category of professionals who are sticklers for discipline and catalysts of punctuality? Can PR professionals unite to create a campaign for discipline?

To start with we can do the following three things â€“

a. To formalise the time we spend talking to our connections outside our organisations about our professional growth and career concerns. There is now an option to sign up at www.karmacircles.com/IndiaPR using our linkedin profilesÂ and with no commercial exchange one can seek and find mentors and plan dedicated time for a conversation

b. To use the calendar in MS Outlook to schedule meetings and stick to them. I know several professionals who like to fix meetings randomly and claim that it works for them

c. To dedicate time on a weekly basis to either write a regular blog or read one book relevant to the profession and write a review at the end of it that will benefit a generation of professionals getting into the PR business.